Fed Govt denies security pact with ex-militant leader

The Federal Government has not concessioned maritime security to the private security firm of a former Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpomupolo a.k.a Tompolo, a presidential aide has said.

What the government has with Global West Vessel Specialist Limited (GWVSL) is a boat contract, Senior Special Adviser (SSA) on Maritime Affairs, to the President, Leke Oyewole, said in Lagos.

Oyewole also denied claims that President Goodluck Jonathan favoured the Niger Delta region in the concession by involving the former Niger Delta warlord.

What the Federal Government did through Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), he said, was to ask GWVSL to supply the patrol boats and surveillance equipment for NIMASA and the Navy to patrol the waterway.

"Government has not concessioned maritime security to any private firm. We have simply addressed issues of maintenance bureaucracy that crippled the patrol arm of NIMASA like every other maritime agency. We have asked a private firm to supply patrol boats and surveillance equipment and maintain them. NIMASA and Navy will use these facilities to protect the maritime domain," he said.

The contract, he said, is aimed at reducing freight costs to Nigeria which, according to him, is currently at war risk premium, adding: "It is purposed to capture offshore operations and the accruable revenue and to mitigate incidents of importation of contraband amongst other objectives."

He said: "It is worthy of mention also that the concession is on No Cure No Pay basis. The company is to spend about $103 million, not the government. The company will only be remunerated from improvements in NIMASA revenue over and above the current earnings. We have also not ignored the natural growth of about 19 per cent in NIMASA’s annual revenue, which the company must also beat before they can receive any payment".

The process, he said, started with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that Jonathan merely concluded process.

Oyewole said the boat scheme was first announced by the president at the Niger Delta Council Meeting, telling them that it was meant to provide jobs for Niger Delta people. "Tompolo was not involved, but because it is meant for his region, he lent his support," he said.

He said the government would soon deploy gadgets to track and identify vessels within the country’s territorial waters.

The government, he said, would soon embark on the removal of abandoned ships on the waterway and improve on the capacity of the marine police.

"We want to begin to track all ships within our coast so that at every point, we will be able to know their locations, and going by the new maritime security technology that we are going to deploy very soon, there will not be any hiding place for anybody. It is either we know you or we don’t know you and when we don’t know you, the ground forces will approach you," he said.

Tanker vessels, he said, have become attractive to sea pirates because they sell smuggled and stolen petroleum product on cash basis.

Said he: "These are the same people who ought to pay duties to the government, but they don’t. Sometimes they bring the products in with subsidy money, but they are the same people who smuggle the products outside the country to be sold on cash and at the end of the day complain about piracy.

"They just drift anywhere they like to sell their products and collect cash, so people find out that they have cash on them, the same people that they do business with will now come back to take the money from them."

Director-General of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, Mrs Ify Akerele, said her group is set to send its recommendations to President Jonathan, on the problems of the sector.